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school.’
    He laughed – and after a moment’s thought, she laughed with him. It was the first time he’d heard it, rich and solemn, like the lower register of a harp.
    ‘Don’t you think I’m the finished article?’ she teased.
    ‘You seem more like a work in progress.’
    She liked that. He sat up a little straighter. The moment of intimacy only made him realise how little – nothing at all – he knew about the woman he’d trusted his life to.
    ‘Where are you from?’
    She flicked her head. ‘I had a cosmopolitan childhood.’
    ‘Anywhere in particular?’
    ‘All over.’
    Her tone said he wasn’t going to get anything more geographical. He tried a different angle.
    ‘If you were in my situation – if you had to choose one person to save your life – who would you choose?’
    ‘My sister.’ No hesitation.
    ‘Where’s she.’
    ‘I don’t know.’ Paul started to laugh; Valerie cut him short. ‘I’d find her. Or she’d find me. She’s very intuitive.’
    ‘OK.’
    ‘Anyway, you still haven’t answered that question yourself.’
    ‘I’d choose you.’ He’d rushed it, almost swallowing the words with a sudden fit of anxiety. So many things, and you’re nervous about this? marvelled the voice inside. He glanced across at her, wondering how she’d taken it.
    She slowed the car and eased into a layby. ‘You’d better get in the back. We’re nearly at the border.’
     
    The boot was small and cramped, though not nearly tight enough to contain his fears. Crossing from Switzerland to Germany was almost like going from England to Scotland: he’d done it half a dozen times and never even had to show his passport. But none of those times had he been wanted for theft and murder.
    The car slowed. He listened to the tyres beneath him, praying they wouldn’t stop. Slower and slower, rolling towards a standstill. He thought he could count every rotation of the wheels. He screwed his eyes almost shut, waiting for the onslaught of light and sound when the guards opened the boot. He thought of all the things he could say in his defence, and realised there was nothing.
    The full weight of his guilt bore down on him. Just in front of his nose, a triangular plastic tag glowed in the darkness. An emergency release handle. He wriggled in the dark, trying to free his arm to reach it. Better to go now, to surrender before they caught him. Anything to be free of the guilt.
    The car picked up speed. Through the seats, he heard Valerie’s muffled voice from the front.
    ‘That was easy.’

Chapter 5
    Against all the odds, he slept. When he woke, the boot was open and Valerie was standing over him. A vast web of lights floated in the sky above her. It took him a moment to realise it was a skyscraper.
    ‘Frankfurt,’ she said. ‘You didn’t say where, so I found a hotel.’
    Valerie arranged the room; Paul snuck in while the night porter was in the back office. She accompanied him in the lift up to the sixth floor. At two a.m., they had the hotel to themselves.
    The room was comfortable and anonymous: a television, a bathroom, a chair and a queen size bed. Paul took off his coat and shoes and sat on the bed, rubbing his neck where the car boot had cricked it. Valerie stood by the door, neither staying nor going. Just there.
    ‘Are you heading off?’
    ‘I’m too tired.’ She walked over to the chair and removed her shoes. She took off her jacket, unbuttoned her blouse and unzipped her skirt. Paul stared, then tried not to, then realised it didn’t matter what he did. She rolled down her tights, shrugged off her bra and stepped out of her panties as if he wasn’t there. When she turned around, there was no embarrassment on her face, nor any blush of desire. He wished he could say the same.
    ‘I don’t have pyjamas,’ she said. She got into bed and turned out the light. After a moment, Paul undressed and got in with her. He lay there ram-rod straight, feeling the heat coming off her skin but not